Safety concerns prompt Oncenter to cancel EPA's hydrofracking hearing

Syracuse, NY - When Oncenter officials agreed Monday afternoon to play host to a hearing on a controversial gas drilling technique on Thursday, they figured on 1,200 people attending.

By this morning, however, a steady stream of phone calls from groups on both sides of the hydrofracking issue convinced Onondaga County officials they would have to deal with a crowd of 5,000 or more, many of whom planned to stage protests.

After a meeting of 15 to 20 county and Syracuse city officials, the hearing at the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center was called off.

“We really had to make sure we could handle this safely and securely,” said Sandy Baker, vice president of sales and marketing at the Oncenter, which runs the convention center. “We really were not able to do so in such a short amount of time.”

The Environmental Protection Agency hearing had been scheduled for Binghamton, but EPA officials called the Oncenter Monday after lease negotiations with Binghamton University broke down at the last minute. The university had escalated its price after learning that 8,000 people could come for the hearing.

Onondaga County officials found out quickly that they needed more time to plan and arrange police security.

“What we found out after the fact was that the issue in Binghamton wasn’t so much the hearing, it was the 8,000 to 10,000 protestors, advocates, ralliers and proponents, particularly outside the venue, that was the real concern,” said Matt Millea, the deputy county executive for physical services.

The EPA said Binghamton University took “several actions to dissuade EPA from holding the meetings at their campus, including increasing the cost from $6,000 to almost $40,000.”

The university said in a statement that it had planned on a crowd of 1,200, but learned that about 8,000 people could be on campus for the hearing.

“These costs were based upon the full breadth of this event with the primary emphasis being on the safety of all attendees,” the university said.

The hearing is to be the fourth nationwide to obtain public input before conducting a research study into potential hazards of hydrofracking. The third hearing, held July 22 near Pittsburgh, drew about 1,200 people.